Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2010

One of the most important questions you will be asked by potential investors is how your solutions beats the competition, not just today, but over the three to five year life of their investment. The concept is called “sustainable competitive advantage.” That implies competitive now, and the potential to stay in the lead.

Competition 89

Competition Patents IBM IBM 89

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2017

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 67

Marketing SEM Startup Blogging 67

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2013

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 99

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup SEM 99

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments. Status of the solution. In addition, manufacturing and inventory levels will be reviewed.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2015

In the last few years, Southern California has been a key market in launching mobile applications and services, due to a huge, mobile-savvy consumer population. San Diego is a great market for us, because it has strong smartphone usage, and a great, mixed demographic. We operate our site differently, here and in other markets.

San Diego 100

San Diego Mobile Marketing Sites 100

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. In today’s market, so much focus is placed on transacting business online. Who do you view as your biggest competition? You’re right.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2012

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 95

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2019

Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Yet most products can be made dramatically cheaper as technologies improve.

Startup 80

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 80

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is simply buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company. Cost per click (CPC).

SEM 90

SEM Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2011

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 90

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

In that critical first minute, no one needs to hear that you have a passionate dream of changing the world, introducing new disruptive technology, or a product with more features than competitors. Lead with your best marketing pitch and conviction. Describe technology and features, not competitiveness.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. Skip the fuzzy marketing terms, such as "easier to use," "lower cost" and "disruptive technology."

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments. Status of the solution. In addition, manufacturing and inventory levels will be reviewed.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

We raised this capital in what has increasingly become a difficult market for fund raising so I’d like to share with you some details on how we get it done. Fragmented markets can be a great target for disruption. And it’s easy to run circles around them as our product differentiation shows. Why is it so valuable?

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Marketing your startup can be one of the most daunting tasks an entrepreneur faces on their journey to world domination. Marketing, however, is not always about what we as consumers need, but what we deeply desire. Just make it go away…. You need to be unique and compelling to be noticed. You need to be a unicorn.

Guide 105

Guide Startup Marketing Template 105

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. I have seen really great product people espouse the death of the business plan. Do so at your peril.

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

In most cases, I provide some combination of the following advice: Brevity - Maximum length: two pages. Hopefully this straightforward format will help you avoid overly obtuse verbiage, while keeping your executive summary to two pages. Competition. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. So if you add people like me the target market is tens of millions. Far from it. Lots of it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

They are tasked with “getting deals done” so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. You have a marketing department with three people.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. I need your help in getting it to market.” Unlike [competition], we [differentiation].” Quantify the market. Present a sustainable competitive advantage.

Startup 113

Startup Patents Template Competition 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 10, 2012

The lessons learned by Divshot confirm that obtaining, and more importantly maintaining, visibility on the front page of a major social news site results from the congruence of three factors: audience, timing and engagement. If we hadn’t done well on Hacker News we would have needed to have some serious product/market fit discussions.".

News 198

News Sites Startup RSS 198

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. I have always worked on early stage products. Greathouse: Great products and companies that came out (of) Santa Barbara.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you. The best entrepreneurs get market feedback regularly and change their approach based on the latest information. Not so much.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2012

Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Yet most products can be made dramatically cheaper as technologies improve.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Ideas Competition Startup 102

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

Our perspectives on the topic wax and wane with market cycles. Here’s what I believe, but won’t claim to “know” because every time I think I know something the market seems to do something entirely different. And if you’re lucky and hit product/market fit straight out of the gate – awesome.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

Gordon Gould , the co-founder of SmartPants, talks about the company and how it's applying what he learned founding ThisNext and from a long experience in the social media market to the consumer products goods area--what he describes as Brands 2.0. First, talk about what SmartPants Vitamins are? We give it to our own kids.

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2010

Every time I see a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends.

Marketing 56

Marketing SEM Blogging Design 56

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2017

Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Yet most products can be made dramatically cheaper as technologies improve.

Ideas 55

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 55

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2013

Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Yet most products can be made dramatically cheaper as technologies improve.

Ideas 99

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

One of the most important questions you will be asked by potential investors is how your solutions beats the competition, not just today, but over the three to five year life of their investment. The concept is called “sustainable competitive advantage.” Our product is truly disruptive technology.” Our patent will protect us.”

Patents 90

Patents Competition IBM IBM 90

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Can a startup gain a foothold in the competitive market by designing the right UX and user experience to make a job and career site for everyone? There''s a huge demand for a limited supply of employees, in particularly, there a large demand for product developers, and there''s a shortage of experienced people.

Design 174

Design Sites Cornerstone OnDemand Startup 174

Tech.Co

AUGUST 1, 2017

Once a novelty act reserved for indie band albums and curious art projects, crowdfunding is starting to play a major role in the world of startups and new products. There’s a lot of opportunity in crowdfunding, but the market is more crowded now (no pun intended) than it ever has been. The interest is well-placed.

Startup 93

Startup Social Media Tips Ideas 93

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. Sales data needs to be correlated to advertising campaigns, price changes, seasonal forces, competitive actions, and other costs of sales. Operating productivity. Size of gross margin.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

The company also made quite an impression with its viral video --which you have to watch to appreciate--of CEO Michael Dubin extolling the virtues of the company's products, and panning overpriced, expensive razor brands. Michael Dubin: My background is digital marketing, and a little bit of editorial.

Dollar Shave Club 210

Dollar Shave Club Startup Pricing Sample 210